Prior to Contra 4, WayForward made a demo for what the studio felt Silent Hill should be like on the DS. It never really got too far, but it’s still neat to look at!
System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: October 1st, 2013 (NE), Q1 2014 (EU)
Developer: Neverland Co.
Publisher: XSEED Games (NA), Marvelous AQL (EU)
Author: Austin
There’s an implicit warning to the player the moment they start up Rune Factory 4, and it goes something like this:
“I really hope you like anime.”
Yes, the first thing you’ll lay eyes upon after clicking the game’s icon on the 3DS’ home menu is a fully animated music video where anime-styled characters are introduced and a Japanese woman sings a wonderfully cliché (in a good way, I might argue) tune in the background. If you had seen the video without any context, you may as well have assumed it was the theme song to a TV show or the title sequence of a film– and depending on who you are, that might be a joyous setting of stage for a game. Regardless, this opening is actually a very serviceable measuring stick for whether or not Rune Factory 4 will tickle your fancy.
Beyond that outer aesthetic layer, though, there’s a lot to Rune Factory 4: Players will be asked to tend crops, foster relationships (both romantic and platonic), tackle dungeons, learn to cook, forge items, take up chemistry– the list of activities, superficially, is extremely long. Quantity does not equate to quality though, and in the case of Rune Factory 4, the quality does prove somewhat unstable.
A couple of months ago, 505 Games provided us with confirmation that How to Survive is heading to Wii U. The revelation was accompanied by a bit of disappointing news, however. Unlike other multiplatform versions of How to Survive, the Wii U version won’t include online play.
We recently spoke with developer Eko Software about the upcoming title and director Jules Benjamin provided us with an explanation as to why this is so.
Benjamin noted that the team decided to focus on improving How to Survive’s story mode – described as “the biggest part of the game” while also creating “specific features for the Wii U instead of doing a straight port and not taking care of the second screen.”
Benjamin said:
“Thanks a lot for this question, we were waiting the chance to explain. The Wii U has a lot of unique features and we needed to make the right choices. We preferred to improve the biggest part of the game – the story mode – and develop specific features for the Wii U instead of doing a straight port and not taking care of the second screen.”
Benjamin later added that the UI “has been fully re-designed for the Wii U and is fully tactile.” This “allows actions that are not possible on other platforms.”
We’ll have our full How to Survive interview up later this weekend.
